A. CHOICE B. RELATIONSHIP C. DIRECTION D. DECISION A. CHOICE B...

Question

22. A. choice

B. relationship

C. direction

D. decision

II. Read the passage and choose the best answer A, B, C or D.

Legally blind since childhood, Olympic track and field athlete and marathon runner Marla Runyan never let her vision

loss stand in the way of her athletic dreams. She was born on January 4, 1969 in Santa Maria, California. At the age of

nine, Runyan developed Stargardt’s Disease, a form of macular degeneration that left her legally blind. After graduating

from Adolfo Camarillo High School in 1987, Runyan studied at San Diego State, where she earned a master’s degree in

communicative disorders in 1994. Runyan first tried out and qualified for the US Olympic team in 1996 in the heptathlon,

but did not ultimately make it onto the team. Undauntedly, she won a gold medal that year in the Paralympics—for the

second time since 1992 (she has held a total of five gold medals for the Paralympics). In 1999, she won the gold medal

in the 1500-meter race at the Pan American Games. With her sites still set on the Olympics, in 2000 she became the

first blind athlete to qualify for the US Olympic team in the 1500-meter event. A world class runner, Runyan finished as

the top American in the New York City Marathon. She finished fifth place in the Boston Marathon in 2003; seventh place

in the Chicago Marathon in 2004, and first place in the Twin Cities Marathon in 2006. Unfortunately, Runyan’s vision

has continued to worsen with each passing year. However, she has not let it affect her career. In 2001, she co-wrote

and published her autobiography, No Finish Line: My Life As I See It. Although Runyan had hoped to make the 2008

Olympic team, back problems and surgery prevented it. She instead earned a second master’s degree in special

education in 2012 and began teaching the blind in Oregon schools. Since 2013, Runyan has served as a teacher and

an ambassador for the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts—renowned for its most famous

student, Helen Keller.